


Learning to Fly

by letthebookbegin



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-12 03:39:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7919116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letthebookbegin/pseuds/letthebookbegin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karasuno's third years stand on the stage of the Spring Nationals and take a moment to remember what brought them there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sawamura Daichi

The air feels different here.

It's the first thought that crosses Daichi's head when he steps out onto the court, leading his team behind him, the number one blazing white on his back.

The air feels expectant and full, resting on his shoulders, just shy of heavy, a weight he's become more than suited to bear. Something big is coming, the air seems to whisper. It brings to mind another court, another time he had heard the promise, fainter though it was then.

It was windy, the day he joined the Karasuno volleyball team. He remembers the wind lifting his hair, remembers feeling so light with excitement he imagined the wind carrying him away. His heart was full, emotions spilling over the edges, and he had stood on the court with pride in his eyes as he declared he'd known Karasuno was for him since he'd seen them at nationals. He stood straight-backed and tall and the wind whispered to him. Something big is coming, something big is coming. He grinned, big and bright, and hope filled him with warmth.

He'd known, of course, that Karasuno had changed, had been told over and over again by people who had tried to dissuade him from his choice, tried to tell him to join another school. He'd known, but he hadn't cared - he had seen this school soar, and there was no other that could tempt him once he'd seen this one shine. Still, he hadn't expected what he'd found - _shabby,_ his mind had supplied to him once before he had firmly refused to rethink it, banishing it from his head. Hope still burned in him, but as the days passed into weeks and weeks passed into months he could feel himself growing colder.

But he hadn't made it to Karasuno without an endless measure of stubbornness. No one would stop him from thriving here, certainly not his own mind, and Daichi clung on with both hands, fingers digging into the earth, and refused to let go. He cupped his hands around the flame and blew on it resolutely, added fuel to the fire with books on volleyball theory, extra practices, new moves, felt it begin to burn again. He had come to Karasuno to fly, and he would soar.

Whenever he'd felt he'd fall, Sugawara and Azumane had been right beside him to haul him up again, and he for them, all three trusting they'd make it to the storied stage. Somewhere along the line Daichi had realised, startled, that 'I' had turned to 'we'. The fire burned brighter than ever with three pairs of hands tended to it, and Daichi had faced their first match with the utter certainty they'd win.

They had, though barely, but that didn't matter when they were laughing in ecstasy, in a moment when everything seemed more than achievable, when everything seemed easy.

And then they lost. Without even a set to their name, without even going into deuce, without, it seemed, being able to put up a fight. The fire plunged to its worst then; none of them could think of anything to say to the others. It had been the captain who had lifted their heads; the last speech of his term, he reminded them, tears pouring down his cheeks, they still had plenty of chances awaiting, to grab onto them. They continued training with a vengeance.

The keeper of savage crows, they had called him; when his unfamiliar silhouette had first appeared in the doorway, Daichi had not been sure what to make of him, this old man who the advisor had delightedly announced as the famed Coach Ukai. He was quick to leave an impression, however, with brutal practices that left Daichi's body battered and his mind eager. Daichi felt himself growing, and it had been nearly two years since he stepped on this fateful court, but he could finally feel his wings begin to unfurl.

And then stop, as the Coach collapsed - and it was so much more painful to be so close and lose his chance, but he wouldn't let himself fall again, and with Asahi and Suga beside him he continued, running if he couldn't fly, walking if he couldn't run, moving all the same. Hope continued to burn in him, an endless, bright flame, and even if it dimmed sometimes he'd rather burn than let it die.

Somewhere through the years his hope turned to belief, and standing at the national stage, it's not victory that floods though Daichi, it's a sense of rightness, as if every one of the endless paths, every choice, every alternate reality, would lead to this - him leading his team, ready to claim the title of the best in Japan.

Suga and Asahi stand beside him, and his team, the players and the managers and the Coach and the advisor, everyone, crowds around him. Their stage is waiting. Daichi takes a deep breath.

'Karasuno, fight!'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My first proper Haikyuu fic! The other chapters will be on Asahi and Suga's points of view, and there _may_ be a sort of epilogue, I haven't really decided yet.


	2. Azumane Asahi

Asahi steps out onto the court, and nervousness ripples through him. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, letting the title of the ace sit comfortably on his shoulders. Its weight is a constant reminder, and it has cemented its place there. He remembers, far too well, how much of a burden it had felt until recently; how much he had struggled with its feel.

He had always felt he was too small for his body; his limbs clumsily made, his size too intimidating for his personality. The only time he fit into his body was on the volleyball court; using all his strength and his height, rising above the net, slamming the ball to the ground. The sound of the ball crashing into the floor always felt overwhelmingly right.

He thinks that's why he hurt so much when he couldn't hear it anymore. He found out, during that match, just how different the sound of the ball hitting the floor on the wrong side of the net was. How it felt to suddenly be lost in the one place you felt right. The world started crashing down on him in that moment; he was lost in the wrong, wrong, wrong sound of the ball falling to the floor, couldn't hear anything else, couldn't hear his teammates behind him, couldn't remember what the sound of the ball hitting the right side sounded like. The iron wall loomed all around him and he didn't know anything else.

He left the team. There was never a time when walking away from volleyball wouldn't hurt, but it had been drowned by the hurt of losing himself. He had blamed it all on the match, back then; he thinks now it started long before then, when the third years left in the spring and the new team began. When he had become the team's ace.

The word had been heavy on his shoulders from the beginning. He would usually have gone to Daichi or Suga when something troubled him, but Daichi had worn the captain's label so well and so easily, and Suga had never wavered in his determination to be the best he could for the team, and he felt the words die on his tongue every time he approached them.

So he continued in silence; but he could feel the weight of the word spreading thin cracks along his body, felt it grow heavier and heavier with each passing day. The second last shot of the Datekou match was the exact moment he shattered.

But he came back stronger, in the end. He remembers the trepidation he felt as he slung the title back across his shoulders, but he wasn't holding the weight himself anymore. Each day passed, and he grew with every one, and one day he went to practice and it didn't feel like a burden anymore, only a responsibility, one he didn't mind bearing for the teammates who had helped him so much. So Asahi looks at his team and swallows his nerves. He steps onto the court and carries the title of the ace with pride.


	3. Sugawara Koushi

Koushi steps out onto the court knowing he’s not a starting member, knowing he’s invaluable despite that. The Karasuno members begin their warm ups with the usual babble, and Koushi feels his mind drift to a time he didn’t.

He’s not a genius. He knows that, he’s always known that, but he’s also always known that no amount of natural talent can overcome hard work. The moment Kageyama Tobio first sets foot in the Karasuno volleyball court is the moment he begins to doubt this.

Even the way he moves seems different to anything he’s ever seen; there’s an easy certainty to his movements he watches with envy, like he’s never had cause to doubt his strength. It doesn’t come as a surprise, the first time he replaces him.

Two declarations become a constant refrain inside his head; Karasuno will win this tournament, and if Kageyama is what it takes to win, he can bear it; and that when Kageyama slips (he must slip, he will slip, he’s only human, and a first year at that) he will be ready to take his place.

The chances slip away; matches come and go, and he is not needed. They face their rival, the rival that broke his team with their impenetrable defence, and he is not needed. They reach the semi-finals, and he stares out at the court, his heart sinking as it tells him he is not needed.

And then he is; and though he feels pain at the broken look on Kageyama’s face, his teammate’s face, there’s a joy that it can’t muffle. He speaks to Kageyama as they stand on the borderline, easing his grief and teaching him to be strong as he has been, and then he is over the threshold and his team is waiting for him, they’re waiting for him. His heart is lighter than it’s ever been, and his two declarations feel as firm as the truth.

Koushi steps out onto the court of the spring nationals, and he feels the same as he did then; as if he’s daring the world to let them lose when it’s his hands pushing the ball through the air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is rubbish sorry but it's been ages and i felt guilty leaving this unfinished D:


End file.
